Interstellar Roleplay

Spacecraft are extremely common in this world. At least two thirds of the inhabitants of the Lux System own or have contact with spacecraft in their every day lives. No technologies exist that allow travel faster than the speed of light and most mid-class ships average at around ten million kilometers per hour (making a journey between Mars and Earth about 16 hours). Of course, faster and slower ships have been produced for different purposes. Travel faster than 30,000 km/h within the orbit of any planet, asteroid, or satellite is strictly prohibited except in emergency situations.

Naming Structure: Role-LegalDesignationCode Make Model Class Year

So a smaller, well-armed military ship created by Phoenix with a model titled Royal created in the year 4034 might be titled this:

M-3211 Phoenix Royal Battlecruiser 4034

Which I admit, is quite the mouthful, but the first part is legal mumbo jumbo with the role being M for Military, C for Civilian, T for Transport, E for Econ, etc. so that would only be used in legal scenarios

The rest is fairly simple, the company who produces it, the model which is titled however the hell they want with whatever features it has being kept the same usually through generations of that model. The Class is spaceship dependent and I will write that out while I'm not plugging away at my lunch break, the year would only be used when purchasing/selling probably just so people know the exact year of production, but I'm sure they wouldn't change much through years meaning a 4034 would look the same as a 4035, it's just there to give accurate info.

alright i am done for now

A few questions:

What is the main form of currency used in the Lux System?

Is there some sort of "fast travel" (e.g. hyperspace, etc.)?

If I may suggest one, how about wormhole travel? Spaceships have technology that allows them to open and traverse wormholes. This could lead to interesting scenarios where systems with natural wormholes become strategic areas as technology could be used to open the other end wherever.

That would be an interesting idea!

I have titled the currency as Space Silver, small printed coins made from an unnamed precious metal found in some asteroids. With how impossible it is to keep digital money safe, society reverted back into using primarily physical coin.

As for faster travel, I have steered away from that simply because it's easily exploitable in a role play sense but also because I don't find it realistically possible to have random bouts of super speed. It would be damaging to ships, very dangerous, and burn through fuel incredibly fast.

Also I'd like to note that pretty much everything I say isn't to be taken as facts of this world, please criticize my points of view so we can make the world together Going back to earlier topics like the synths and corporations, the history of Sartak, and my whole messy timeline would be good still because they need lots of work from everyone.

Okay!

The reason why fast travel is good for science fiction worlds like this is because it cuts down on unnecessary time spent on the travel to certain planets. But considering this roleplay is limited to one solar system, it might not be necessary for fast travel to be a thing.

yeah and if we decide to leave the solar system, we could introduce it as new experimental technology-- the world will always be changing so it will be even more realistic that way

Alright then!

It's not really super speed because it takes time to open up wormholes, so ideally it would be a way to engage in outer-system travel. We could make it so that opening wormholes so close to terrestrial bodies be extremely dangerous (which it probably is) and make another form of propulsion for inter-system travel. In that case, I would suggest ion drives.

Apologies, I was referring to more common methods of science fiction fast travel, the wormhole method does eliminate a lot of that, it just seems like it might still be an uncertain technology for them where they are at, which is completely possible and a very interesting way of going about things, just not very efficient which would keep it balanced quite nicely.

And after looking up ion drives, I think a more advanced form of those would definitely explain the propulsion on our future crafts, thanks for that. There's so much that goes into keeping science fiction believable that it's awesome to have a group with different sets of knowledge to bring to the table

Nothing like the possibility of destroying the entire Lux system to keep you on your toes
In all seriousness though, I do believe it would be highly experimental. Maybe it could act as the culmination of the campaign, when the players have done all they can do in-system?

As for ion drives, I'm glad you like them! I stumbled across them a while ago, but I haven't had the time to put the idea into practice.

Yeah I was looking into what the fasted travel was now today but didn't come across that somehow. And yeah, I think it's definitely decided that we introduce faster travel later into the roleplay at this point as a way to keep things fresh. It's cool that we already have plans for that.

A Madman's Lunch Break Rambling About Sci-Fi Spaceships Part II: Electric Boogaloo

So yesterday I described possible travel speed as well a way to name each individual ship and detailed most parts of that. Obviously make and model are simple enough to add, and everything else is self-explanatory... except for the... *drum roll* spaceship classes! (I'm feeling loopy today for some reason, I apologize in advance haha)

Cruiser: Cruisers are smaller and faster ships, built with a sleek design that isn't made to take hits as much as it is to dodge them. There are several types of cruisers including Cargo Cruisers (has a large docking bay in the rear and is slightly larger to hold more goods), Battlecruisers (Better armed and protected than other types), Patrol Ships (Not titled as such but still a type of cruiser), and Assassins (Tiny ships with no defense equipped with cloaking mechanisms and powerful missiles). Just plain civilian class cruisers also exist but are not equipped with any weapons or cargo modifications.

Frigate: Frigates are somewhat larger and boxier than cruisers, more often serving as the 'foot soldier' equivalent of space battle scene, seeing as they are well armored but still quite maneuverable. These are not usually used for purposes outside of battle, but old retired frigates have been known to be renovated as purely cargo or transport ships.

Corvette:Corvettes are among the most generic examples of civilian ships, being small and slower, only meant for travelling within orbits on their own and parking in carriers for any extended travel.

Carriers: WIP

okay lunch break over bye bye

I was thinking about a tonnage classification of military ships. From smallest to biggest:
Frigate
Corvette
Destroyer
Cruiser
Carrier
Dreadnought
Battleship
Supercarrier
Titan

What do you think? If you like it, I can add some more descriptors later.

Even though I have little knowledge on ship classification, I think that this would be a good idea to incorporate into the spaceship classification.

Yeah that should definitely incorporated in some form, but dreadnought is a type of battleship in real life so it might need to be played with.

I don't have great knowledge of ship classes either so I was going off of what they sound like which was probably not the best idea. I still feel like cruisers at least in the space turf should smaller and faster, and the subclasses i think would be good to add more ship variety, but the names should be played with so they all sound better.

To be fair, all of these are real life ship classifications. The dreadnought was a sub-battleship design used during the early 20th century, so I think it's fair game to use here. All of what I used here is more or less based on their real-life counterparts. The only reason I structured it the way I did was to give a base in reality for new(er) players. I feel that if we created a new name for every ship type it would be difficult to keep up with. At least it would be difficult for me.

Well with a sub-class system, I'm just saying it would be under the battleship classification the way I had the cruiser set up with battlecruiser, cargo cruiser, patrol ship, and assassin.

And yeah, I understand what you mean it's definitely smart to use the names and ideas of those ships as a base

I think that a subclass system would become too complex and require a significant amount of bookkeeping.

Instead, should we create a separate ship classification for civilian ships? Something about calling every significantly large cargo hauler a battleship doesn't sit right with me

That's a fair point that I didn't even think about. Definitely will want to separate out the classifications in some way.